The University of Ottawa and its Senate, from the eyes of students

In a letter dated August 16, 2011 (HERE), the representatives of all University of Ottawa campus unions (Student associations, Professor’s unions, TA’s union, Support staff union, and more) demanded an end to the University administration’s attempts to ram through a desperately needed Policy on the Prevention of Discrimination and Harassment without proper consultation with the campus community.

The letter is addressed to the University’s Associate Vice-President, Resources, Caroline Roy-Egner, and to Murray Sang, the Director of the administration’s Student Academic Success Service, and it is copied to President Allan Rock and all Members of University Senate. Here is a summary of the letter’s content, in English:

• Dear Ms. Egner and Mr. Sang,

• You’ve invited us to meet for consultation on the Policy on the Prevention of Discrimination and Harassment between August 22-30, 2011.

• We are concerned that these meetings will be the only meetings before the Policy is officially adopted. Our concerns are exacerbated because you have often indicated to us that the policy approval is on a “tight schedule.”

• There are major constraints preventing us from conducting an adequate consultation with our members. Your short deadlines that you are imposing on us also compromise our participation in the process.

• For these reasons, we ask you to extend the consultation process into the coming months, for an adoption later this Autumn.

• Furthermore, in order to alleviate our legitimate concerns, we firmly ask you to be much more explicit regarding the manner in which the consultation process will proceed.

• It is absolutely necessary that we engage in frank and authentic discussion during this consultation process, including holding meetings beyond the August 22-30 time frame. Moreover, you have not forwarded us information regarding a program of prevention or a procedure for handling complaints, which are needed for these meetings to be authentic.

• We want our participation in the consultation process to fully effective.